Happenings in Hays: A Personal Tale

Amidst the chatter of chamber-men and indulgers of cupcakes (myself included), I met an assortment of influential San Marcans at the most recent Chamber of Commerce mixer. As a political science major, meeting people like Amy Kirwin was a hopeful reassurance to me; as her job represents an interest/cause she felt passionately enough about to turn into her career. Amy works as the Solid Waste Management Coordinator for the city of San Marcos, and is an advocate for the Keep San Marcos Beautiful cause, where she actively promotes living a conservation-minded, eco-friendly lifestyle. She has been influential in executing efficient recycling programs throughout the San Marcos area, making sure there are recycling deposit sites at various apartment complexes throughout our community. She shared with me the up and coming demand for marketing jobs in the environmental protection sector, emphasizing the need for workers skilled in graphic art design. Amy stressed the importance of creating attention-catching advertisements to promote and inform the public of company events and products. She said the most important part of her job is educating the masses on the importance of conservation and the widespread use of reusable resources. Consequently, on July 23 at 7:30 p.m., Amy has organized a screening of a documentary that will highlight the pool of pollution that is currently floating around in the Pacific Ocean. There will be various activities that promote conservation and recycling for children at the event.

So far, my time as an intern at the Hays County Food Bank has been interesting as well as informative. Last month we traveled to Lily Pad Farms and toured their aquaponics facility. I was nothing short of amazed by the fact that one man with a dream was able to build such an impressive empire of plants. Adam, the owner and head operator of the farm, gave us an inside peek at his hand-built, homegrown state-of-the-art greenhouses. He shared with us that just three of his greenhouses produce a combined total of a whopping 1,000 plants a week! Adam is definitely a hunger-hero of Hays, as he feeds a number of people throughout San Marcos and donates a generous amount of his produce to our most gracious food bank.

Adam isn’t the only friend of the food bank worth shedding some light on. Logan’s Roadhouse partnered with the food bank on June 24 to help us raise money for upcoming events. They agreed to donate 20% of their consumer’s dinner bills to the food bank. It was awesome being able to witness how many friends came out to support a good cause. The servers were also fantastic, being more than willing to spread the word about our fundraiser and help us collect as much as we could! Come to think of it, the Onion Brewski Sirloin wasn’t so bad itself. ;)

**Distribution will be held at the San Marcos Recreation Hall in the City Park (170 Charles Austin Dr.) on the following dates: Wednesday, July 29th Wednesday, August 5th Wednesday, August 19th Wednesday, September 2nd Wednesday, September 16th Wednesday, October 7th…